1. Interactive Storytelling Writing for Interactive Media

2. Aristotle’s Poetics Beginning Middle End A whole is that which has a beginning, a middle and an end (Poetics VII). Plot: “the arrangement of the incidents”

3. Gustav Freytag’s Analysis of 5-Act Dramatic Structure (German Dramatist and Novelist in the 1800’s)

4. Mark Stephen Meadows Pause & Effect (www.bore.com) NARRATIVE DIAGRAMS NARRATIVE DIAGRAMS

5. Branch Narratives Paths with decision points that create forks in the road (branches) Example: Choose Your Own Adventure Stories Dunnbar Bound Riptide

6. “The Romp” – Ebaum’s World

8. 3 Basic Interactive Plot Structures: 1) Nodal Linear events interrupted by moments of interactivity. Possibly “do or die.” Interactive branching moments are called “nodes.” Each segment between nodes is called a “place.”

9. A Variation With Puzzling Linear narrative interrupted by puzzle or game to continue (Chris Crawford)

10. 3 Basic Interactive Plot Structures: 2) Modulated Several plots going on at once that you can tap into, but all stories are impositional—you could exhaust all possibilities.

11. 3 Basic Interactive Plot Structures: 3) Open No discernable story line (example: SIM) Players create their own narratives with their own justifications.

12. Structures Impositional: the user uncovers a single plotline Expressive: users free to generate their own plots in an open, simulated environment

13. Keith Johnstone's Impro Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre, 1981, explores a number of games and techniques for reawakening spontaneous creativity. Some of these techniques include group storytelling a word a time, automatic writing, and wearing masks.

14. Finding a Balance Between Impositional and Expressive From A Theory Review, by Zach Tomaszewski for ICS 699 Spring 2005, directed by Dr. Kim Binsted University of Hawaii Treating the audience like actors does not make them behave like actors. As Johnstone explains, new improv students often have difficulty keeping up an extended improv because they tend to "block" offers. Even if we are continually creating new plots for the user, we must be cautious not to err in the opposite direction of leaving the player too few choices. If we have been generating narratives and then trying to add interaction, starting with interaction and then trying to generate a narrative will be a new approach.

15. Questions? Exercise: Branch Narrative

16. Bibliography Aristotle. Poetics. Translated: S. H. Butcher. Introduction: Francis Fergusson. New York: Hill and Wang, 1961. Freytag, Gustav. Technique of the Drama. Translated: Elias J. MacEwan, from 6th German edition. Chicago: S.C. Griggs & Company, 1895. Johnstone, Keith. Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre. NY: A Theatre Arts Book/Routledge, 1979. Laurel, Brenda. Computers as Theatre. Reading, Mass: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., 1991. Meadows, Mark Stephens. Pause & Effect: The Art of Interactive Narrative. Indianapolis, IN: New Riders, 2003.

17. Teacher’s Resources Foundations of Interactive Narrative A Theory Review, by Zach Tomaszewski for ICS 699 Spring 2005, directed by Dr. Kim Binsted University of HawaiiFoundations of Interactive Narrative Choose Your Own Adventure Pedagogy for young kids Pedagogy